SearchHost.exe keeps crashing

Yesterday I noticed that my windows 11 search wasn't working.

Click on Windows Start -> start typing (nothing was being typed and the window even froze for 10-20s).

The same happens if I click on the "Type here to search". The windows freezes for a moment then it all crashes.

After a bit more investigation I realised there were more functionalities that aren't working.

right-clicking on any windows tool (cmd, event viewer, etc.) causes the windows explorer to freeze.

However I can open event viewer (left click :))

By observing Event Viewer (Application logs)

I noticed that every time my search/window crashes the below error appears:

```

Faulting application name: SearchHost.exe, version: 421.22500.6095.0, time stamp: 0x6356ff1d

Faulting module name: combase.dll, version: 10.0.22000.1165, time stamp: 0x233f10b4

Exception code: 0xc0000602

Fault offset: 0x0000000000221c9f

Faulting process ID: 0x5048

Faulting application start time: 0x01d9268d3daf2401

Faulting application path: C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchHost.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\combase.dll

Report ID: 92bcbe04-8113-4ff8-ae70-358920c8e526

Faulting package full name: MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_1000.22000.1455.0_x64__cw5n1h2txyewy

Faulting package-relative application ID: CortanaUI

```

I already tried nearly everything:

• sfc /scannow

• Dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

• restarting search service

• restarting file explorer

• rebuilding search indexes

• running in Powershell:

  • Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

• Trying a clean boot https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd#ID0EBBD=Windows_11

  • which didn't fix the issue

To help understand the situation a even more here are some other facts about my machine:

• I have Avast antivirus installed (but I installed it after the issue happened)

• Before the issue started I did install a Game from Steam which automatically installed Ubisoft, uplay and some .NET driver

• I created another local user which doesn't have this issue (so that is a small temporary win) - but I don't want to move to a new user where the same might happen later

My hardware:

Hopefully someone can help me understand the error message I posted and has a solution to fix it.
Maybe .dll reinstall or something similar.

I found all potential solutions from many similar problems (though none exactly the same error) on the web: